685 
4 
PV 1 



General Assemhly of the State of Vermont. Session of 1856. 

REPORTS 



SELECT COMMITTEES OF THE SENATE 



S L A V E R Y 



CONDITION OF KANSAS. 



THE OUTRAGE 



ON THE 



FREEDOM OF DEBATE 



IN CONGRESS. 



BURLINGTON : 

m,EE I>IiESS I>HIIsrT. 

1856. 



w 

Cfeneral Assembly of the State of Vermont. Session of 1856. 



REPORTS 



OF 



SELECT COMMITTEES OF THE SENATE 



ON 



SLAVERY 



CONDITION OF KANSAS. 



AND ON 



THE OUTRAGE 



ON THH 



FREEDOM OF DEBATE 



IN CONGRESS. 



BURLINGTON : 

FI?,EE DPIiESS -FIRXTSTT. 

1866. 



GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OP VERMONT. 



SESSionsr of isse. 



EEPORT 



Of tlie Majority of the Comtnittee to whom was referred so much of 
the Cfovernor's Message as relates to Slavery and the Condition of 
Kansas. 



In Senate, Nov. 12, 1856. — Read, ordered to be laid on the table, and that the 
Secretary procure 500 copies to be printed for the use of the Senate. 

Attest, C. H. CHAPMAN, Secretary. 



To THE Honorable Senate now in Session : 

The majoritj^ of your committee to ■whom was referred that portion 
of the Governor's Message relating to the subject of Slavery and the 
condition of Kansas, respectfully report : 

That they have considered the subject and in their opinion the 
troubles in Kanzas are the legitimate result of the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, and the attempt by Congress to carry out the doc- 
trine of ^^ Popular Sovereignty.,^^ by c&simgnY)On the inhabitants of 
Kansas the right of governing the territory without the supervision, 
control or interference of the General Government, beyond the Act 
organizing the territorial government. 

The object of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, is so obvious 
as to require no farther discussion. That object has been thus far 
accomplished in throwing open the territory of Kansas, as the theatre 
of strife and contention between Slavery and Freedom for the ascen- 
dency upon its soil. The attempt, by Congress, to render the doc- 
trine of Squatter Sovereignty effectual within the territory, after 
having repealed the Missouri Compromise, was but opening the lists 
of contention and strife, within its borders, between Slavery and Free- 



dom, and it is too obvious to be doubted, that the object was to give 
to Slavery an advantage, in respect to that territory, which it could 
not otherwise possess. It is most certain that Congress by direct 
action, could not legislate Slavery into that territory, but by the ma- 
cldnery provided by the Act organizing it, Congress provided a mode, 
by which, by indirection, that result might be attained. 

As the natural result of such action by Congress, in subserviency 
to the doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty , the creation of the territorial 
legislature has taken place, in the manner, with the circumstances 
and incidents, and of the c]iaracter, which is fully recorded in the 
history of Kansas for the last two years. 

By the Constitution, Congress has the exclusive and ultimate 
power of governing the territory by virtue of the clause conferring the 
power to " make all needful rules and regulations respecting the 
territory belonging to the United States." This is obvious on the 
face of the instrument, as well as from the necessary incidents at- 
tending the relations of national territory to the National Govern- 
ment. 

The doctrine, too, has been fully discussed and settled by the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, and most undoubtingly pro- 
pounded by the text writers on the Constitutional law of the Country. 

That Congress may do this— " by rules and regulations" is ex- 
pressly provided. 

The practical governing " by rules and regulations," of the terri- 
tory North West of the Ohio River, was in operation under the or- 
dinance of 1787, at the very time the Constitution was framed and 
adopted. Similar rules and regulations have been adopted 
in all the Acts organizing territorial governments, from that 
day down to the lime of the Kansas Nebraska act. In 
most of them, provision has been made for the election of a Territo- 
rial Legislature, invested with full legislative authority , subject only 
to a few specific restrictions, and their acts being subject, by express 
provision, to the supervision of Congress. 

In the act organizing the territory of Kansas, no express provision 
is made for the submission of the acts of the territorial Legislature to 
Congress, whose disapproval should render such acts void ; — never- 
theless, the power of Congress over such acts extends equally to 



them, and a disapproval by Congress would equally render them null, 
as if such submission had been expressly provided for in the act, as 
has been done in the acts organizing other territories. 

Though, obviously, Congress designed, by omitting such a provis- 
ion in this particular act, and by some other peculiar features of it, to 
place the future Government of the territory in the hands of the Gov- 
ernment thus created and organized, without further interference on 
its part; or, in other words, designed to give full scope to the doctrine 
of squatter sovereignty, with all its chances in favor of the establish- 
ment of slavery in that territory, — still Congress has not in fact, as it 
could not, by possibility do, under the Constitution, divested itself, in 
the least degree, of either its power, right, or duty to govern the ter- 
ritory, and thereby to secure to the entire territory, and to every 
person within its borders, the full exercise of all the rights, immunities 
and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution to every person within 
the limits of the national domain. 

It is unquestionably in the power of Congress to adopt such " rules 
and regulations " for the government of its territories, as, in its dis- 
cretion it shall see fit, provided always, that it shall take care and see 
to it, that such rules and regulations shall be of such a character, and 
shall be so applied and administered, as to fulfil, in all respects, its 
Constitutional duty of securing to the territory, and the inhabitants 
thereof, all the rights, privileges and immunities guaranteed by the 
Constitution. In the present case, the fault does not seem to consist 
in the fact, that Congress has violated the Constitution, by creating 
the territorial government, with its various departments as is provided 
in said act of organization, and in conferring upon it the various gov- 
ernmental powers, executive, legislative and judicial ; — the doing 
of this is but the making of the " rules and regulations " which the 
Constitution authorizes it to do. This territorial system, by proper 
use and application, might well answer all the ends and serve all the 
purposes for good, which the Constitution designed, and all true 
patriots should desire. Nor does the fault consist in the omission 
of the provision, requiring the acts of the territorial legislature to be 
laid before Congress, for approval or disapproval. For Congress, 
as before intimated, has, by the very face of the Constitution, the full 
power over all acts of the territorial legislature, independently of 



any such provision, and cannot divest itself of it ; and, at the same 
time that it has the power , it has, also, both the duty and the respon- 
sibility, equally indivestible, of exercising that power, to every intent 
and purpose, necessary for providing to the Territory a practical gov- 
ernment, which shall secure to all within its borders, their full Con- 
stitutional rights as American citizens, or sojourners. 

Where, then, lies the fault ? — We assume, what the evidence is 
too full and clear to leave in doubt, that under the Act organizing the 
Territory, the Legislature was made up, and the various oflBces filled 
by elections attended and procured by acts of the grossest fraud and 
violence, rendering horridly black and bloody the shameful record ; 
that the enactments of that Legislature violate, in the most open 
manner, many of the provisions of the Constitution, by denying sa- 
cred and inaUenable rights, and by imposing unjust and most cruel 
oppressions, penalties, and pains ; that the various officers under 
said territorial government, in violation of the most obvious rights 
guaranteed by the Constitution, without authority by any provisions 
of the law of Congress, organizing the Territory, and transcending 
even the bloody code of that Vandal legislature, perpetrate with im- 
punity, under color of office, acts which have only characterized, to 
the horror of the world, the most barbarous races, and the worst scenes 
of the maddest revolutions. And yet the General Government, in 
the persons of its President and Congress, permit that bogus legisla- 
ture to pass acts, and its enactments to stand as among the practical 
" rules and regulations " under that sacred instrument, the Constitu- 
tion of these United States, for the government of said Territory, 
and permit the officers of said territorial government to hold their 
respective offices, and under color thereof to administer said " rules 
and regulations " in the manner before indicated. 

Not only do they permit these things thus to be, and to continue 
to be done, but, to the eternal shame and disgrace of the nation, 
there is too much reason for charging the executive head, as well as 
the prevailing majority in the legislative department of the General 
Government, with conniving at the acts and proceedings which have 
thus far involved in blood, bondage, and conflagration, that soil conse- 
crated by the Constitution to life, liberty, and security to person and 
property of all within its borders. 



In carrying out the doctrines, in the manner and for the purposes 
herein indicated, do we hold, and charge upon the Executive and 
Legislative departments of the General Government, the most palpa- 
ble disregard of their Constitutional power, and violation of their 
Constitutional duties — and thus charge them with, and hold them re- 
sponsible for, the troubles in Kansas ; to the consideration of which 
your attention is called by the Governor in his annual message. 

The majority ot your Committee fully concur with the sentiments 
of the Governor, expressed in his message. 

As to the subject suggested in the Message, whether something by 
the Legislature is not required in the premises, your Committee are 
not prepared to make any definite proposition. 

The subject of action by the Legislature, beyond the expression of 
our views of the course pursued by the General Government, and of 
the pretended Governmental Officers in Kansas, is one of so much 
delicacy and difficulty, arising from various questions of legislative 
power and duty, as well as of expediency, that your Committee re- 
gard it best to leave it open to the deliberate consideration of the 
Senate, without any specific recommendation as to what, in our opm- 
ion, it behooves the Legislature to do. 

Your Committee recommend the adoption of the accompanying 
resolutions by the Senate and House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That the State of Vermont still holds and maintains the prin- 
ciples and sentiments on the subject of Slavery in its moral, social, and po- 
litical relations to the inhabitants, Territory, and government of the Uni- 
ted States, and of the several States, which, from year to year, in ^ times 
past, she has, expressed through her legislature, and the votes and voices of 
all her true Representatives in the National Congress. 

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with all our fellow men in Kan- 
sas, who, for their conscientious professions of, and adherence to, the prin- 
ciples of human rights, proclaimed on the very front of the great manifesto 
of American Independence, and resting on the very foundation of the Con- 
stitutional frame work of our National Government, have been denied the 
enjoyment of those rights and privileges, by that Government which is 
bound by every obligation that can touch its several departments and the of- 
ficers thereof, to secure their enjoyment to all within its borders. 

Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power 
over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that in 
the exercise of this power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to 



8 

provide and enforce such " rules and regulations " for the government of 
the territories as shall best secure]to the inhabitants thereof" those inalienable 
rights guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen. 

Resolved, That Congress in refusing, at its last session, to provide means 
for the relief of Kansas, either by admitting it into the Union as a free 
State, or by abolishing the illegal and ruflfianly legislature of that territory, 
and the horrid code of laws passed thereby, and providing effectually for a 
Legislature legally elected and qualified, has disregarded and violated its 
duties and obligations under the Constitution. 

Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed and our Kepre- 
sentatives requested to continue to do all in their power to cause Congress 
to perform the full measure of its duty, in securing a free government to 
Kansas, both as a territory and a state, and in putting an end to the anar- 
chy and bloodshed, which are reigning there in consequence of the past un- 
warrantable acts and neglects of the general government in this behalf. 

Respectfully submitted, 

S. CONVERSE, \m ; r r 

JOHN GREGORY, i ^^J^^^V ^f Committee. 



GENERAL ASSEMBLY OP THE STATE OP VERMONT. 



SESSIOIsT OF 1856. 



REPORT 



Of the Blinority of tJie Committee to whom was refen'ed so much of 
the Governor's Message as relates to Slavery and the Condition of 
Kansas. 



In Senate, Nov. 12, 1856. — Read, ordered to be laid on the table, and that the 
Secretary procure 500 copies to be printed for the use of the Senate. 

Attest, C. H, CHAPMAN, Secretary. 



To THE Senate now in Session : 

The undersigned, a minority of your Committee to whom was re- 
ferred that portion of the Governor's Message relative to the subject 
of Slavery and the condition of Kansas — and the Petition of J. B. 
Hutchinson and Others — not being willing to accede to all the views 
of the majority of said Committee begs leave to submit his views in 
a separate report. So far as the report of the majority of said Com- 
mittee does not conflict in principle with the views of the imdersigned 
as stated below, he yields to it his assent. 

In the opinion of the undersigned the troubles in Kansas are the le- 
gitimate result of the attempt on the part of the Congress of the Uni- 
ted States, to throw off the duty and responsibility of governing and pro- 
tecting the inhabitants of the Territories belonging to the United States, 
and delegating a portion of the Legislative power of the General Gov- 
ernment to an irresponsible Territorial Legislature, created imder the 
organic act, establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, ap- 
proved May 30, 1854. 

The powers of the General Government are divided into three co- 
ordinate branches — the Legislative — the Executive — and the Judicial, 



— each of which derives its whole power from the Constitution of the 
United States ; and the p owers of each, can only be exercised in the 
mode provided by the Constitution. The stability of the Government 
and the security of the citizen depend upon the faithful exercise of 
these powers, by these several branches of the Government, and nei- 
ther assuming powers belonging to the other. 

The people, in formingthe Constitution of the United States, deem- 
ed it expedient to create these three co-ordinate branches and to vest 
the appropriate powers, m each ; and the duty of exercising these 
several powers, is absolutely imposed upon each branch and neither 
has any authority to delegate any of its powers to any other body — 
or to create any inferior or subordinate body, to perform its duties, ex- 
cept such as are necessarily incident to such organizations. 

The Constitution of the United States is so explicit upon this sub- 
ject, that your Committee deem it unnecessary to say more than to 
recite its provisions, to estabhsh the position here assumed ; and the 
undersigned invites your attention to the following provisions of the 
Constitution. 

Art. 1. Sec. 1. — " All Legislative powers herein granted, shall 
be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of 
a Senate and House of Representatives." 

Art. 2. Sec. 1. — " The Executive power shall be vested in a 
President of the United States of America." 

Art. 3. Sec. 1. " The Judicial Power of the United States 
shall be vested in one Supreme Court and such inferior Courts as the 
Congress shall from time to time ordain and establish." 

These provisions of the Constitution are mandatory, and the pow- 
ers of the Government imposed upon each are absolutely vested in 
each of these departments ; and no power exists under the Constitu- 
tion to vest these powers elsewhere. Each must perform its appro- 
priate functions. 

The first must enact laws ; the second must execute them ; and the 
last must expound and enforce them. 

From these provisions of the Constitution it is obvious that all 
Legislative power of the United States is absolutely vested in Con- 
gress and they alone must exercise this power and perform the duties 
appertaining to such a department. Congress has no power under 
the Constitution to create, or authorize the creation of, an inferior or 



sLibordinat e legislative body — or to delegate to any other body the 
legislative power which by the Constitution is vested in it. 

The whole legislative power is vested in Congress and hence none 
exists to be vested elsewhere, and it follows irresistibly, that wherever 
legislative action is required under the Constitution of the United 
States, It must be exercised by Congress and by Congress alone. The 
power of the Executive is co-extensive with the Legislative. The Pres- 
ident can approve and execute such laws and such only as shall be 
enacted by Congress, and the Judicial power is Hmited to the expound- 
ing and enforcing such laws as Congress may from time to time en- 
act, and to enforce and carry out the provisions of the Constitution 
and the laws and treaties made in pursuance thereof. 

Congress has no more power to delegate its authority, than the 
President or the Supreme Court have to delegate the authority con- 
ferred by the Constitution of the United States upon them. 

These views have been fully sanctioned by the Supreme Judicial 
power of the United States in the case of Martin vs. Hunter, 1. 
Wheaton's Reps. 304. 

By the treaty between the United States and France ratified Apr. 
30, 1803, by which the United States acquired the territory now em- 
braced within the boundaries of Kansas and Nebraska, the propriety 
and constitutionality of which has long since ceased to be questioned, 
it is provided, (in the last clause of x\rticle 1. as follows) " The first 
Consul of the French Republic, desiring to give to the United States 
a strong proof of his friendship, doth hereby cede to the said United 
States, in the name of the French Republic, forever, and in full sov- 
ereignty, the said territory, with all its rights and appurtenances as 
fully and in the same manner as they have been acquired by the 
French Republic." 

Art. 3 is as follows : " The inhabitants of the ceded territory, 
shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States and admitted 
as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Con- 
stitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities 
of the citizens of the United States, and in the mean time they shall 
be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, 
property and the religion which they profess." 

Art. 9 of the treaty with Mexico ratified February 2d, 1848, by 
which other territory was acquired, contains a similar provision. 



The ceding Government had a right to exact this as one of the 
terms of cession, and the United States having accepted these terms 
are bound to carry them out in good faith. 

The last clause of Art. 1. Sec. 8 of the Constitution provides that 
" Congress shall have power to make all laws, that shall be necessary 
and proper to carry into execution the foregoing powers, and all oth- 
er powers vested by this Constitution, in the Government of the 
United States or in any department or office thereof." 

The treaty making power is one of the powers of the Government, 
and Congress has not only the power, but it is its duty to enact 
such laws as shall be necessary and "proper to carry out in good faith 
all the provisions of any treaty, constitutionally made — and this power 
is fully conferred by the provisions of the Constitution above referred 
to, without resorting to the 2d clause of sec. 3 of article 4, about 
which so much doubt has been expressed. 

The treaties by which the United States acquired 'the territory as 
well as the incidents of sovereignty belonging to a Government capa- 
ble of acquiring territory; and the provisions of the Constitution above 
referred to — impose upon Congress the poioer and the duty, to enact 
such laws as are necessary and proper to protect the inhab- 
itants of those Territories in the free enjoyment of their liberty^ 
propertij, and religion. And Congress cannot, -without a violation of 
its duties, neglect to do this. 

This power and duty cannot be transferred to and vested in an 
independent territorial legislature. 

Independent of any Constitutional objection, the undersigned is of 
opinion that two classes of people, strangers to each other, differing 
in opinion, bitter in feeling, one demanding the establishment of 
human Slavery, and the other resisting it, cannot rush together into 
a new Territory with power to regulate their own institutions in their 
own way, and produce anything but tumult, disorder, and anarchy. 
And the power of legislation should not, as a matter of expediency, 
be transferred from Congress to such an irresponsible body of men. 
The dangerous consequences of such an experiment we have already 
too sadly realized. 

The undersigned can see no way to remedy such evils as now exist 
in Kansas, but to return to the proper and Constitutional exercise of 



the powers legislative vested in Congress, the members of which are 
at all times accountable to their constituents. 

The Government of the United States emanated from the people, 
and is a Constitutional Government, in contradistinction to a confed- 
eracy of States ; and as such the Territories are the property of the 
People, as members of the United States Government, and not the 
property of the several States, as independent sovereignties ; and 
being so, the several States have no right to carry any State institu- 
tion into the Territories, but must look to the Constiiution of the 
United States, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, only, for the 
exercise of rights and powers in the Territories. 

It has long since been settled, beyond possibility of cavil, that the 
United States Constitution treats all human beings as persons, and 
not as property. This is clearly laid down by the Supreme Court of 
the United States, in the case of Groves and others vs. Slaughter, 
15 Peters' Reps. 449. 

It clearly is not necessary or jjroper^ in order to protect the inhab- 
itants in the free enjoyment of their liberty, to make slaves of them. 

The undersigned does not feel warranted in extending this argu- 
ment further. 

From the brief summary of the positions assumed by the 
nndersigned, it would seem to follow, that however much we 
may sympathize with our suffering brethren in Kansas, we 
cannot as a State throw our protecting arms around them, without 
assuming powers, which are vested in the government of the United 
States — and should we cease to look to the government of the United 
States, for the exercise of the power and duty of governing and pro- 
tecting the inhabitants of the territories, we should expect the Slave- 
holdinii; States would do the same, and thus the Free and the Slave 
States would meet in bloody conflict on the plains of Kansas. 

The undersigned does not doubt but the legislature have power to 
grant acts of incorporation to carry on any legitimate business ex- 
tending beyond the limits of our own State, whether it be working 
mines, running steamboats, cultivating land, or aiding men to emi- 
grate to any territory of the United States to make bona fide settle- 
ments or to transact any lawful business — and in so doing they can- 
not with any propriety, be arraigned and censured by the President 



of the United States, for meddling with that which does not concern 
them — though their object be to promulgate the doctrine " that all 
men are created /ree." 

The undersigned does not deem it necessary to express an opinion 
as to the constitutional power of the Legislature to raise money by 
taxation, to be expended for objects not within the jurisdiction of the 
State. Such a power is at least of so doubtful a character that it 
should not be resorted to while other means for raising money for 
philanthropic objects can readily be found. 

Should the State appropriate money for provisions only, it would 
not answer the purpose — it is equally necessary that the inhabitants 
should be clad and armed — and should this be inadequate to their pro- 
tection, — armed wen must be sent to their aid. This power conceded, 
we could not deny the same to the Slave holding States, which 
must bring the States, as independent sovereignties, in conflict. The 
undersigned cannot but feel that this subject requires much considera- 
tion. Should the citizens of the United States on their personal res- 
ponsibility do this, it would avoid these difficulties and would be but 
exercising a right guaranteed to them by the Constitution, 
and your Committee do not doubt but that the citizens of 
this State, with hearts ever true to thfe cause of freedom, will 
cheerfully give by voluntary subscriptions, or through the instrumen- 
tality of companies, to be incorporated by the Legislature, such 
means as may be required, to aid in the relief of our brethren who 
are oppressed by the operation of the unconstitutional laws of Kan- 
sas. 

The undersigned submits the accompanying resolutions for your 
consideration. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

LEVI- UNDERWOOD, Minority of Committee. 



RESOLUTIONS. 

Resolved, — 1st. That the Government of the United States emanated 
from the people of the several States, acting in their individual right — and 
is a constitutional Government, deriving its whole powers from the people, 
in contradistinction to the assumed doctrine, that it is a compact, entered 
into by and between the several States, acting as independent Sovereignties. 
And herein is our only assurance of the stability and safety of our General 
Government. 

2nd. That the Territories belong to the People of the United States, and 
not to the States as independent Sovereignties — and the citizens of no State 
have a right by virtue of State authority, to carry the local institutions of 
their State into the Territories belonging to the United States, but must 
look to the Constitution of the United States, and the laws made in pur- 
suance thereof for the exercise of rights and powers in the Territories. 

3d. That all legislative power of the General Government is absolutely 
vested in, and can be exercised by Congress only — and that Congress can- 
not, for any purpose, or under any pretext, transfer or delegate any part of 
this power to any other body whatsoever ; nor has Congress any power to 
create a territorial legislature and confer upon it any of the legislative 
power vested by the Constitution in the Congress of the United States. 

4th. That the organic acts establishing the Territories of Kansas and 
Nebraska are obvious violations of the Constitution of the United States, 
and that it is the duty of Congress immediately to repeal the same, and 
enact such laws as are necessary and proper to protect the inhabitants of 
said Territories in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and relig- 
ion. And that our Senators be instructed, and our Representatives in Con- 
gress be requested to use their exertions to procure the repeal of the un- 
constitutional and tyrannical laws of Kansas, and the speedy enactment of 
Buch laws as may be required to protect the inhabitants of Kansas inthe/rec 
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion, agreeably to the obvious 
requirements of the Constitution, and according to the dictates of humani- 
ty and reason. 

5th. That Congress has no power to establish or authorize human 
Slavery in any of the Territories of the United States ; and it is the _ duty 
of Congress to enact laws prohibiting Slavery and involuntary servitude, 
except for the commission of crimes, and provide penalties for the violation 
of the personal liberty of the inhabitants of the Territories. 



GENEKAL ASSEMBLY OP THE STATE OF VERMONT. 



SESSIOKT OF 1S56. 



REPORT 



Of the Select Commiittee to whom was referred the matter of the 
Outrage against the Freedom of Debate in our National 
Legislature. 



■ In Senate, Nov. 12, 1856. — Read, ordered to be laid on the table, and that the 
Secretary procure 500 copies to be printed for the use of the General Assembly. 

CLARK H. CHAPMAN, Secretary. 



To THE Senate now in Session : 

Your Committee, to whom was referred the res.olution relative to 
outrages in our National Legislature against freedom of speech and 
debate, respectfully represent, that they find the right to freedom of 
speech expressly guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States. 
They believe it to have been a fight estabhshed before the Constitu- 
tion, and on such a basis that not even the Constitution itself could 
render it more sacred. 

The early settlers of this country made this right one of their most 
cherished immunities. Driven out by oppression at home, seeking a 
shelter from the religious persecutions of Laud and the civil tyranny 
of Strafibrd, they came here to plant and establish republican insti- 
tutions. The right of free speech was one of the earliest and deepest 
rooted of these : next to their religious persecutions they abhorred 
the denial of this right : next to the Court of High Commission, the 
Court of the Star Chamber was most oppressive. That plain out- 
spoken freedom of debate and earnestness in denouncing error which 
resented the heavy yoke of the House of Tudor, and rebelled against 
the imbecile tyranny of the House of Stuart, was brought with tlic 



early settlers of this country and by them established as a fundamen- 
tal principle of republicanism. From the time -when Peter Went- 
worth stood up in the Parliament of Elizabeth to defend this right, to 
the time when Patrick Henry hurled a haughty defiance to the royal 
servants, that principle became more settled and better recognized 
each succeeding year. 

Two hundred years of conflict and of trial ; of good fortune and of 
ill fortune, but of final success, had not only endeared, but sanctified 
it in the hearts of the lovers of republican liberty ; and when the days 
of conflict were past and the Kepublic was triumphantly estab- 
lished, among the chief and foremost of immunities to be guaranteed 
to the people was that oifree speech. 

Not only was its exercise guaranteed by the specific provisions of 
the Constitution, but was embraced in the fundamental doctrines of 
our republican institutions, and is essential to their legitimate, success- 
ful operation, to their very existence. 

The proper exercise, by the elector, of his elective franchise as a 
citizen requires intelligent action. If he cannot comprehend that ac- 
tion, then he is not an elector, but an automaton moving at the will 
of another. 

His intelligent action can only be secured by full and free discus- 
sion. If this discussion be controlled or curtailed, the power so cur- 
tailing and controlling that right is the real ruler of the State ; not 
the people. This is a right belonging to, and to be exercised by every 
citizen. But when men are set apart as the servants of the people, 
their legislative agents, this right of free speech which they possess in 
common with their fellow citizens becomes merged in, and expanded 
into a positive, an imperative duty they owe their constituency. 
Members of Congress and of Legislatures are chosen to watch over the 
interests of the people, to guard their rights and to redress their 
wrongs. By the nature of the service they have undertaken, and 
the magnitude of the interests in their charge, they are bound, at all 
times, to a faithful discharge of their duty, and not only so, but when 
great principles are involved, when vital interests are at stake, they 
are especially bound to stand boldly forth and acquit themselves 
like men. 

The private citizen, having only his own interest to guard, may if 



he choose neglect it, but the public servant who does so is guilty of a 
gross neglect of his duty. To uphold the right, to oppose the wrong, 
he must address the reason and understanding of men, he must speak 
as well as vote. Nor should he shrink from denouncing the wrong 
as well as upholding the right through fear of disputes and even per- 
sonal collision. 

His duties are to preserve the rights of the people, not to see or 
permit them to be sacrificed for the sake of personal quiet. It is bet- 
ter that there should be earnest and even bitter discussions and con- 
tentions in Legislative Halls than that error should be unrebuked ; 
than to have legislative action crude and unsatisfactory, sending forth 
turmoils and contentions over the whole country. No false delicacy, 
no motives of policy, should deter a legislator from opposing, from 
denouncing, if need be, what is wrong, in the outset. 

False legislation cannot be veiled and hidden from the eyes of a 
free and intelligent constituency. Whatever is passed over in silence, 
whatever of evil issues are not fully and fairly met, denounced, and 
vanquished in their place, come forth and spread over a Avide field, 
doing incalculable, often irremediable harm. Whenever faulty legis- 
lation is allowed, by default or otherwise, it serves to weaken the re- 
spect of the people, not only for the law-makers, but for the laws 
themselves, which is one of the worst evils which can exist in a re- 
public. To omit to oppose an evil for the Sake of avoiding collision 
with the defenders of such evil, is only cicatrizing the wound, leaving 
a canker to corrode and fester and poison the whole system. 

Such are some of the views we entertain of the rights and duties 
of public servants. These duties, in the opinion of your 
Committee, have been often neglected ; these rights too often out- 
raged. They derive this opinion from numerous circumstances 
brought to their notice, and particularly from the one referred to in a 
series of resolutions herewith submitted. 

On the 22nd day of May last, Hon. Charles Sumner, a Senator 
from Massachusetts, was assaulted by a member of the House of 
Representatives, from South Carohna. The ostensible reason for this 
assault was offence taken from a speech delivered in the United 
States Senate, by the Senator, in which were strictures on the action 
of a remote relation of the assailant. 



Yonr Committee have not deemed it necessary to consider the 
speech to ascertain whether it was unjust toward the relative of Mr. 
Brooks or his State. So much of it as relates to matters of public 
importance and interest is not alleged by the defenders of the assault 
as an excuse for the outrage ; so much as relates to personal consid- 
erations between the two men is not within the province of any pub- 
lic legislature to adjust. 

Your Committee, however, find matter for grave consideration, in 
other circumstances than the simple assault and the ostensible reason 
for it. These considerations are of a public character, aud demand 
the attention of all. They are found in the fact that the perpe- 
tration of a deed, in itself cowardly and brutal, justified by reasons 
of a private nature only, meets a hearty response, is lauded and ap- 
plauded, its perpetrator re-elected to Congress, feasted with public 
dinners, made merry with wine, loaded with presents and praises in 
one part of the country, while the deed is excused, justified or palia- 
tedin another, by men both of high station and of low degree. 

It was surely no personal private interest that has brought forth the 
plaudits that have w^elcomed the assailant throughout the entire South. 
The act itself was signally destitute of all attributes to merit such 
praise. Stealing upon his victim with malice aforethought, armed 
with deadly weapons, and sustained by friendly conspirators, there is 
neither moral greatness nor even brute courage in the deed. A cruel 
assailant and yet afraid to meet on equal terms the man he assails ; a 
blustering (ftielist, yet covvardlike declining the challenge himself had 
sent ! Surely, the man has no personal traits to entitle him to the 
eclat with which he is received. 

Your Committee cannot believe that the cause assigned for the as- 
sault was its real reason, nor the true reason for its justification. 

They regard it as a mere pretext to cover a deeper, darker de- 
sign. They are confirmed in this belief, when tiiey consider that 
the speech was decorous in language, conflicting with no 
parliamentary rule of debate, from the fact that he was not considered 
out of order by the Senate, and from the further fact that he was even 
exceeded in personal abuse by what had repeatedly been applied to 
the Senator himself, by some of the very men professing such ex- 
ceeding indignation. 



It was a pretext, and only a pretext, to call it a personal chastise- 
ment, and were it so, the act was the more unjustifiable, the more 
heinous. 

Had Mr. Brooks under such circumstances assaulted a Southern 
Senator, instead of presents and praises he would have met execra- 
tions and punishment at home. These approvals of, and rewards for 
the act are not on account of respect for the action or the actor, or care 
for his relative, but because they disliked Senator Sumner on accoiant 
of the opinions he expressed, and were enemies to those immortal prin- 
ciples of freedom he advocated. 

Your committee are of the opinion that there are institutions, even 
in this boasted land of liberty, which will not bear the light of dis- 
cussion, and they are compelled to regard the outrage in question, 
its justification and palliation, as a deliberate attempt to repress ex- 
pressions of opinion on the subject of a peculiar institution which can- 
not be defended by reason ! 

Viewed in this light, there is in the outrage in question and in the 
multiplicity of similar outrages from like sources and for similar causes, 
something more than mere personal quarrels ; there is ajniblic contest, 
and a contest too of no ordinary character, of no trivial importance. 



Therefore, Resolved, That we deem it the right of every private citizen, 
and the duty of every public legislator, to express his opinions freely on all 
subjects of legislation ; that this right is secured, and this duty. is enjoined, 
in the fundamental principles of our government ; that their exercise is 
essential to its existence, and "formidable to tyrants only." 



Resolved, That we have learned the assault upon the person of the dis- 
tinguished Senator from Massachusetts with regret ; we tender to 
him our sympathy in his suffering ; and assure him that we regard the 
assault on him as an assault through him on principles which we cherish, 
and of which we regard him as a noble expounder. 

Resolved, That by reason of the public justification of the assault on 
Senator Sumner by a portion of the people of this republic, and its pallia- 
tion by another, we cannot regard it as the vindication of any personal 
affront, but are forced to consider it a deliberate attempt to stifle the free 
expression of opinion on subjects of national importance. 



6 

Resolved, That we enjoin upon our Senators and Representatives in 
Congress the duty of speaking boldly and freely on all subjects under their 
consideration ; and that Vermont will defend her servants in the per- 
formance of this duty now and forever, and at whatever cost. 

Respectfully submitted, 

R. C. BENTON, ) 

ASA KEYES, \ Committee. 

H. S. ROYCE. S 



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